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Mods need more training on what is bickering. You've just killed off a section of debate between two posters where valuable points were being made discussing the thread.

There was no name calling, or insults. The point was being made about how one side made no effort debating properly with the other, which now means that the thread will continue the same way, just at the point where just maybe, one of those posters might have taken my words on board and started discussing the point better.

Mods need more training on what is bickering. You've just killed off a section of debate between two posters where valuable points were being made discussing the thread.

There was no name calling, or insults. The point was being made about how one side made no effort debating properly with the other, which now means that the thread will continue the same way, just at the point where just maybe, one of those posters might have taken my words on board and started discussing the point better.

Never mind, I'm used to it.

Mods don't need training, RB. What we define as unacceptable put downs and bickering includes the way you've lectured mods in the posts above and in your misuse of the report function today. Hopefully now you know what the standards are on here. You might not agree with it but that's how it is. Time to move on.

Right so now I'm not allowed to ask how it's ok for someone to insult me but I get infracted for it?

Because the post in question has magically reappeared fully in tact.

What's the deal with that??

It's never been the case that we discuss other users with anyone. It's a matter of policy. The alternative is that things descend into recriminations and jealousy which takes up time and energy it doesn't warrant. Look after your own posting. If someone is rude to you report it and then don't talk to them and talk to people who are reasonable. More peace and less angst all round. Let this matter drop now please.

It's never been the case that we discuss other users with anyone. It's a matter of policy. The alternative is that things descend into recriminations and jealousy which takes up time and energy it doesn't warrant. Look after your own posting. If someone is rude to you report it and then don't talk to them and talk to people who are reasonable. More peace and less angst all round. Let this matter drop now please.

Well, this is the point Jannno, I have reported it, the post was deleted pending further investigation which shows it's offensive to more than just me. The post has now reappeared with the insult still there.

The mods must have seen this post more than once because the one that was reported just after it was deleted but they ignored the first one.

Now at the second time of asking, it's still there.

You can't avoid answering this by telling me I'm not allowed to discuss other posters. I'm not discussing another poster now, I'm asking why it's OK for someone to insult me.

Well, this is the point Jannno, I have reported it, the post was deleted pending further investigation which shows it's offensive to more than just me. The post has now reappeared with the insult still there.

How is it I am the only one "talked" too, when there are a couple of others who are running their little fingers on the keyboard as well, in this little back and forth tussle? (and one person who decided to comment, when they were not even part of the conversation?) And on top of this, I get some infractions.

I understand I have a few infractions, but this should make it acceptable for others to run their fingers, while I have to sit back and let it go.

How is it I am the only one "talked" too, when there are a couple of others who are running their little fingers on the keyboard as well, in this little back and forth tussle? (and one person who decided to comment, when they were not even part of the conversation?) And on top of this, I get some infractions.

I understand I have a few infractions, but this should make it acceptable for others to run their fingers, while I have to sit back and let it go.

It isn't a back and forth tussle though is it?

You are constantly posting in an antagonistic/confrontational manner...hence your infraction history.

I was banned for the period of four days on the basis of "Seeking to provoke other users" and "taking cheap shots at the moderating team". The comment that I made constituted neither.

Cullenator posted the Women's Football thread in order to discuss the specific fact that FIFA had nominated a relatively unknown Venezuelan footballer, Deyna Castellanos, for the award of best player in the world for this year. Many, including Cullenator, had made the argument that this showed FIFA's lack of interest in the women's game. There was also some good discussion of the Eniola Aluko saga which came to a head at the Select Committee two weeks ago. It should have been a space in which likeminded people could talk about issues in the women's game that interested them.

What instead happened is exactly what also happened to at least one other thread: this one, which was posted on October 7th. What happened in both cases was that the discussion had been derailed by a number of posters who had come into the thread in order to denigrate the women's game itself. The thread became a dichotomy between those discussing the issue, and those wading in to denigrate the women's game itself, thereby attempting to discredit the need to discuss the issue in the very first place.

No other topic of discussion on this forum has to justify its right to exist and be discussed on as much as women's football does. Now, two posters who have contributed intelligently to the thread in TheSoundLady and Cullenator have already expressed a desire to no longer use these threads to discuss women's football because of the way the conversation gets reduced to pettiness over whether they should even be discussing it in the first place.

That explains the report I issued and the comment that I made. Contributions such as that of Scrams' - who consistently maintained that women's football, in his words, wasn't marketable, and FranklyMrShankly, who sidetracked the discussion into a comparison between the merits of women's football as opposed to men's, citing what he terms 'biological facts' - added nothing to the discussion at hand, and as TheSoundLady pointed out, it wasn't an opportunity for people to come into the thread to verbally devalue the game because they simply didn't happen to enjoy watching it. Hence, I reported posts in the thread in order to try to move the discussion back into what it was originally there for.

Not long after I made that initial report than LordJamieOfCarragher came into the thread and said that he, like Scrams, couldn't name a women's footballer either. My specific point of criticism on that post is that it contributed to the derailing of a discussion and empowered the sort of people who make other posters feel that using these threads for a discussion is not worth their while. To therefore say that I was 'seeking to provoke' is a gross misapprehension of what it was that I was 'seeking' to do. And to call it a cheap shot at a moderator unfairly represents the point that I did make. To ban me for a period of four days for a misconceived view of what my post had actually said was beyond the pale.

GrottenRed isn't around for a few days MAPs. But I've looked at the thread and it seems that the key point of contention is what should and should not be discussed within it; the OP pointed to a headline declaring that FIFA doesn't care about women's football so in my view its understandable that other posters thought it appropriate to cast the same opinion within the thread.
Internet forums inevitably have topic creep and its a blurry line for a mod to decide when a discussion has strayed from the original point too far, as 3 mods posted in that thread it seems that they didn't. You of course disagree and unfortunately tried to police the thread to keep the discussion within the bounds that you and a few others deemed appropriate. I guess that the statement calling out certain posters and blaming the mods for not acting as you thought appropriate was the clincher that got the infraction - remarks about the mod team and how they do (or don't) carry out their responsibilities are of course expressly prohibited.
I'd simply say to follow your own suggestion you gave out later in the thread to ignore posters who you believe are trying to derail a thread, a suggestion I note you immediately ignored as you offered a reply to the next user who threw in a one-liner!

GrottenRed isn't around for a few days MAPs. But I've looked at the thread and it seems that the key point of contention is what should and should not be discussed within it; the OP pointed to a headline declaring that FIFA doesn't care about women's football so in my view its understandable that other posters thought it appropriate to cast the same opinion within the thread.
Internet forums inevitably have topic creep and its a blurry line for a mod to decide when a discussion has strayed from the original point too far, as 3 mods posted in that thread it seems that they didn't. You of course disagree and unfortunately tried to police the thread to keep the discussion within the bounds that you and a few others deemed appropriate. I guess that the statement calling out certain posters and blaming the mods for not acting as you thought appropriate was the clincher that got the infraction - remarks about the mod team and how they do (or don't) carry out their responsibilities are of course expressly prohibited.
I'd simply say to follow your own suggestion you gave out later in the thread to ignore posters who you believe are trying to derail a thread, a suggestion I note you immediately ignored as you offered a reply to the next user who threw in a one-liner!

Thanks for the response.

I accept there's more I could be doing to help, and yeah you're right I should have taken my own advice! Though what I'm specifically arguing against is the idea that disagreeing with what the moderator did was worthy of the infraction. I'm not trying to police the thread. It's that it's tiring that every time we talk about women's football it gets dragged into that same toing-and-froing about whether we should have the right to talk about it at all. I don't think it's fair that everyone who ever wants to talk about issues in the women's game has to put up with that kind of response from certain posters. To see a moderator then take part in that, as opposed to helping to keep it a decent place to discuss the topic at hand was disappointing.

Though you can still disagree with my specific comment, without considering it a cheap shot - I didn't insult him in any way - nor was it an attempt to provoke. It was a fairly worded critique of the way the thread had gone. It's possible to disagree with what I said and discuss it without banning me for intending something that I never intended at all.

I think it's the nature of the beast that if there's to be a space to discuss women's football on the forum, one in which posters like Cullenator and TSL can talk about it at will, there needs to be a bit of clamping down on people like Scrams coming into the thread effectively telling them to shut up about it because it's not worth watching. That's the concern I was raising. It doesn't constitute an insult towards a moderator nor an attempt to provoke anyone.

In any event I appreciate your response. It's good of you to take the time out to get back to me the way you did.